Thursday, April 17, 2008

( Naar de Nederlandse vertaling.) Last year a great album titled Billy Strayhorn - Lush Life was released by Blue Note due to the fact that Billy Strayhorn passed away 40 years ago, on the 31st of May 1967.

Billy Strayhorn, born in Dayton, Ohio in November 1915 was a very modest piano player and composer, that has left his marks on the history of jazz. In December 1938 he met Duke Ellingtonback stage and played for him at the piano.The Duke was fascinated and asked him in his orchestra; not as a piano player, but as the band's composer and arranger. He stayed with the Duke Ellington Orchestra almost 29 years, until he passed away in 1967. He made a lot of compositions, that were performed by the Duke Ellington Orchestra, like the famous Take The A Train, Satin Doll, The Perfume Suite and a lot more tunes, most people think they are composed by Duke Ellington himself. All 15 tunes on this album, dedicated to the music of Billy Strayhorn were composition of him. Well known tunes, like the title tune Lush Life, Lotus Blossom and So This Is Love are alternated with less known tunes, like Fantastic Rhythm and Tonk, a tribute to the honky tonk music of the 1920s and his last composition, titled Blood Count, sung by Elvis Costello with new lyrics, renamed here as My Flame Burns Blue.

The musicians on this Blue Note album (Blue Note 873550 ) are members of the Joe Lovano Quartet (Paul Motian, Hank Jones and George Mraz ), Dianne Reeves, who sings a sensitive version of Lush Life, performes with her trio, featuring Russell Maloneat the guitar and Peter Martin at the piano.Although a lot of people associate this music with big band, these performances are with small groups, and even solo performances at the piano by Bill Charlap. That makes this record a valuable document.Billy Stayhorn himself didn't often play in public, but I found a fragment of a concert by the Duke Ellingfon Orchestra in which Billy Strayhorn plays Take The A Train.

SCRAPPY LAMBERT:Julian Vein contacted me some months ago ( on the first of January 2008) about certain tracks on our third volume of The Complete hit of the Week recordings volume 3. I discussed this compilation in a previous blog. Julian wrote: Spent the last hours of 2007 playing the Archeophone Hit of the Week Vol.3, and discovered a previously unknown (to me) Scrappy Lambert performance. He's part of the College Humor Trio singing "Banks of the Wabash" on Durium Junior X13 (ca. Fall 1931). Neither he nor the other two vocalists are named in the discography.I'm sure he's also part of Men About Town Trio singing "Working On The Railroad" (Durium Junior N11, ca. Fall 1931). MATT did record for ARC, with Victor Young, on September 16, 1931 with Leonard Stokes, Randolph Whatt & Scrappy.(Online Hit of the Week - Durium Discography - Hans Koert)Julian Vein (keepswinging@live.nl)

1 Comments:

Ian R. said...

As a daily viewer of 'Keep Swinging" , I wanted to especially thank-you for the Billy Strayhorn video with the Duke. I saw Duke perform around 1970 in London Ontario Canada while attending University. I still thank God for giving me that joy.